With startups getting into nuclear technology, it’s no surprise to see more fundraising happening. Now, Kyoto fusion, a Japan-based but increasingly expanding overseas fusion energy startup, raised 1.33 billion yen ($11.7 million) in its latest funding round. The company has raised 1.67 billion yen ($14.7 million) to date.
In 2020 the UK government-backed STEP, a prototype reactor, aiming to operate until 2040, and Kyoto Fusioneering has been awarded several contracts to support its development. This will be critical for the future of KF.
The Series B funding round was supported by existing investors, Coral Capital Co. Also participating were Daiwa Corporate Investment, DBJ Capital, JAFCO Group, JGC MIRAI Innovation Fund and JIC Venture Growth Investments.
KF also secured 800 million yen (US$7 million) debt financing from Bank of Kyoto, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Japan Finance Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and MUFG Bank.
The funds will be used to accelerate its research and expand its business, developing its plant engineering technologies for plasma heating (gyrotrons) and heat extraction (mantles). These technologies are necessary in the development of fusion reactor projects.
At the moment, a group of nations is supporting the international project ITER (European Union, Japan, United States, Russia, Korea, India, United Kingdom and China), a technology test reactor that will be operated for the first time later this decade.
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others, like the US and China, are developing their own domestic programs. The Japanese government also has a number of initiatives in the field of fusion.
James Riney, founding partner and CEO of Coral Capital, said: “Climate change is an existential threat to humanity, and a fusion energy future, if achieved, could be the silver bullet that literally saves the world. they want to change the world, this company is really doing it.”
Nuclear fusion promises a lot, but so far it hasn’t yielded much, but if someone gets it right, it has the potential to solve many of the world’s energy and environmental problems, as it would mean a virtually unlimited resource of clean fuel and energy with no emissions. carbon.